Moonlit Night Again

Another ten-minute countdown appeared before everyone. The survivors all breathed a sigh of relief.

The person who had quietly stolen a card had survived too. He realized his approach had been right, and a glimmer of delight appeared in his eyes as he turned his attention to a new target.

"Guest, please place your playing card."

An Ying examined his four cards and was surprised to find that the queen of spades had turned gray.

He tried to submit it, but the NPC refused with a smile. "This card has already been used. It can't be played again."

An Ying's expression grew grave.

The worst-case scenario had come to pass: each card could only be used once.

This Weird had deliberately left the cards with them, misleading them into thinking they could reuse them, only to tell him now that they couldn't?

After weighing his options, he took out the jack of hearts.

In the first round, he had only seen one jack of spades, and none of the other high cards had been played. It was safer to play another high card in the second round.

Could the cards that had already been played still be used after someone else plundered them? If not, wouldn't the plundering have been for nothing?

After collecting his card, the NPC left. An Ying didn't keep the news to himself and immediately told everyone.

Some people hadn't submitted their cards yet. At his warning, their faces grew even paler.

"I only have one card left... Why can't I use it?"

"The card I plundered can still be used! Thank goodness, thank goodness."

More than thirty people remained after the first round. An Ying remembered that over twenty had successfully plundered cards. Whatever else they had, those twenty-odd people each had at least one card they could use to compete.

But it was hard to say for the others.

Soon, the second round began. An Ying was in the first match again, and his opponent was number eight, who played the jack of clubs.

The two cards were turned over, revealing matching ranks. Both players froze.

An Ying rubbed his temples. Since entering the Weird world this time, he had lost count of how many times he had felt pressured.

His luck was bad, and his gambling luck wasn't promising either, so he had tried to play cards as high as possible. Even so, he hadn't been able to avoid something like this.

He still didn't know how many wins it took to get out, but he only had four cards in total. If he lost once, would it still be possible to leave?

The host's impassioned voice rang out. "Oh! Look! Two cards of the same rank! Neither guest's luck nor skill can be underestimated!"

"But in a situation like this, who should be declared the winner? Or is it a tie?"

Numbers one and eight both held their breath. For them, a tie was definitely the best outcome: no winner or loser meant no death.

The host soon smiled and said, "Unfortunately, it's not a tie! According to the suit-ranking rule, hearts outrank clubs, so the jack of hearts—our guest number one—wins this round! Congratulations to guest number one on two consecutive wins!"

Number eight had lost, and his expression darkened. But he still had cards in his hand, so he didn't die and was sent back.

An Ying breathed a small sigh of relief, but he also understood that the suits of the cards here were ranked. Since hearts outranked clubs, the suits were most likely ranked according to the usual order for playing cards.

If he remembered correctly, the usual ranking was spades > hearts > diamonds > clubs.

The abilities of the Weirds that appeared also differed by suit. The Weird that dropped spades could copy the Toddler Weird, split apart, and use shadows to revive repeatedly. It was the strongest and the most troublesome.

Next came hearts: the Weird in the black dress. Although the Hearts Weird's physical attacks were weak, her unavoidable-death rule with its powerful control was too strong. A moment's carelessness meant death, and as far as An Ying knew, the most people had died at her hands.

The Diamonds Weird was a strength-type Weird who wielded a claw hammer. He was powerful, and his hammer had a suction effect. It also locked onto a target after drawing blood, which counted as a targeting rule. Relatively speaking, though, he was easier to kill; several people surrounding him could always deal with him.

The Weirds born from clubs were quite unusual. Unlike the other three suits, they weren't fixed. They shared only one characteristic: each clubs Weird was more like the central figure in a legendary supernatural incident, someone who had died a miserable death and possessed all sorts of rules.

Was there some reason for the connection between these Weirds' abilities and the ranking of the suits?

An Ying pondered this as he returned to his seat. Once again, he made no attempt to plunder the jack of clubs.

"Next, let's welcome..."

"Rumble—!"

A tremendous roar suddenly cut off the host, piercing abruptly into everyone's minds.

It felt as though a sharp blade had been plunged into their heads and was stirring around, their nerves bungee jumping wildly inside their skulls.

An Ying's vision darkened in waves, leaving him unable to think. He clamped his hands over his ears. A gust of wind tousled his white hair, blowing it over his eyes, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the surroundings change abruptly.

The echoes had yet to fade completely, but everyone was already raising their heads, staring dumbstruck at the sky above.

That was right: everyone had been inside an enclosed room, but now they could suddenly see the sky.

The game venue was on the top floor, with several stories of the building originally above their heads, but now the building had been sliced open at this level by something sharp.

Like a knife slicing fruit, a clean, swift flash of a blade had destroyed the several stories above, leaving their floor hanging there alone. The sound they had just heard was the tremendous crash of the upper portion collapsing.

A cold wind blew. Even the impassioned host NPC on the stage was stunned by the sight.

It was the first time they had seen their workplace torn apart. It had happened so suddenly that he really had no experience with it.

An Ying's expression crumbled for an instant, but something even more surprising soon appeared: at the breach in the wall, a familiar figure was bending down to look inside.

The man had changed back into his familiar black shirt. With the moonlight behind him, his expression was hard to see, but his green eyes stood out.

The wind swept past, making the bell at the young man's waist jingle.

As An Ying stood there in a daze, the young man met his pink eyes and waved at him in an especially friendly manner.

"An Ying, what a coincidence."

A group of people turned to look at An Ying in unison.

An Ying instantly resumed his cold, expressionless look. A coincidence? If you didn't do this on purpose, I'll run into a Weird every time I go out!

"This lousy game has too many rules. What's so fun about it? Allow me to present—rabbit swallowing the moon!"

Moonlit Night smiled and moved aside. Before the humans and Weirds could react, a pair of enormous, fluffy, drooping ears came into view first.

The familiar sight made everyone instinctively think of the rabbit they had once seen from a distance.

"What the hell, is that a new Weird? Why is it so huge?" someone who had entered from the beginning and didn't know about the livestream outside blurted out.